One Year
by GunCastor
Summary: Time never waits. it delivers all equally to the same end. You, who wish to safeguard the future, however limited it may be... You will be given one year; go forth without falter, with your heart as your guide... A Persona 3 Drabble Project.
1. Chapter 1

A completely random drabble project featuring the SEES members, I can't really say how many chapters there will be and when the next one will come out. Anyways, please enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES.

Thanks to my friend, Takako, for offering to beta for me.

One Year

Chapter 1

Guidance for The Fool

It wasn't recognizable at first but Minato gradually noticed a change within himself. The others would never experience such a thing, they only had one persona after all. He alone could use and store multiple personae within himself. The day he noticed seemed just like any other day to his friends.

As Minato opened the front doors of the dormitory, he felt more awake then he had been since this the day started. Perhaps it was the thought of seeing his dorm mates that invigorated him slightly or it could just be that he was now just that much closer to his bed. He pushed the thought aside as he stepped inside.

"Welcome back, Arisato. You look tired, perhaps you should go to bed early tonight," the greeting came just as Minato heard the front door of the dorms close behind him. Mitsuru sat on the chair closest to the front door, a rather heavy book sat open on her lap.

"I will do that, Senpai," Minato agreed with her suggestion. He was more than ready to go to bed, going to Tartarus tonight was completely out of the question.

Just yesterday night, they had continued their exploration of Tartarus. He now had the persona, Ara Mitama, to show for it. It now sat in his arsenal along with Orpheus, Nekomata, and Pixie. They had even defeated the first guardian of the ever-changing labyrinth. The experience was exhausting though and the three fighters barely managed the trudge home with the worried older classmen. Even the normally energetic Junpei was quiet throughout the school day.

Mitsuru turned back to the book she was reading, satisfied with Minato's answer. She was calm and collected as usual. It was as if the scared frantic voice she used never existed, though he remembered hearing it when a shadow had dealt a particularly punishing blow on him.

His joints seemed to ache in protest as he made his way towards the kitchen. A light snack seemed like a good idea, followed closely by a shower and then lots of sleep.

"Minato-kun, are you alright? Are you still hurt?" Yukari called out to him from her couch next to the side entry way to the kitchen. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mitsuru look up from her book. The sound of movement from the kitchen stopped, it seemed all eyes were on him.

"It's nothing. I must be more tired than I thought," Minato answered calmly.

"If you say so," Yukari didn't sound like she believed him. She looked at Minato with an expression of worry and guilt. She had hesitated on using her evoker and because of that, Minato had been on the receiving end of a rather serious injury. Minato didn't get angry or lose faith in her though, he understood how difficult it was to pull the trigger. She put a lot of effort in to healing him afterwards, apologizing profusely as she did so.

As Yukari looked over him worriedly, Minato felt something inside of him stir. It wasn't the nervous flutter he got when an attractive girl had her undivided attention on him. In fact, he suddenly felt more comfortable around Yukari then he ever had before. Something inside him, perhaps even a part of him, whispered guidance in to his ears.

"You did a good job patching me up back there, so don't worry about it anymore," Minato found himself saying.

"Well...okay," although she still sounded a bit down, he could visibly see that she was feeling a bit better. "It won't happen again," Yukari was determined.

"I'll be counting on you then," Minato said without hesitation. He left the conversation at that, continuing his way to the kitchen. Everybody else seemed to have long gone back to what they were doing by now.

"Thanks...," a voice whispered behind him and he turned to glance at Yukari one last time before disappearing in to the kitchen.

"Dude, I'm surprised you had enough energy left to go out after school. I slept all through class and came straight home," Junpei was just sitting down in front of the dining table as Minato entered the kitchen. A steaming cup of ramen was raised just below his face.

From what he gathered, Junpei didn't hear any of the conversation between him and Yukari. There was little doubt that Junpei would tease him otherwise. "And now I regret it, I'm exhausted," Minato admitted.

"You shoulda just stayed here with me. We could have slacked off together," Junpei said with his trademark grin. Once again, Minato felt something inside himself awaken and start to advise his actions. It was a different voice from when he was speaking with Yukari yet the feeling was quite similar.

"Hey, we can't have our leader slack off like that," Akihiko, who was sitting next to Junpei, had decided to cut in to the conversation.

"Aw c'mon, Senpai. A little rest never hurt anyone," Junpei whined.

"There's no excuse to taking a whole day off," the senior said.

Sensing a fight coming and not in any particular mood to sit through one, Minato quickly blurted out the first thing he could think of. "Thanks for last night, you saved my ass."

"No problem! You can count on me any time!" Junpei proclaimed rather proudly.

"Well, I think I'll go to bed early tonight," Minato left the kitchen, his brief craving forgotten. As he ascended the stairs, he heard Junpei boasting his supposed achievements to Akihiko.

About half an hour later, Minato stepped out of the showers and slowly walked back to his room. As he was passing the second floor stairs, he could hear voices floating up from the first floor.

"Minato-kun has gotten used to life here really fast, huh? He seems to be always with someone when I see him at school," Yukari's voice drifted from below. Minato stopped in his tracks when he heard his name.

"It's good that he's doing well," Mitsuru voice floated up next.

"Maybe it's because everyone saw you walk with him to school, Yuka-tan. Rumor has it that you two are going out," Junpei said, his loud voice easily heard.

"I only did that because Mitsuru-senpai asked me to show him the way to school! Besides, you shouldn't be listening to rumors anyways, Stupei!" Yukari shouted angrily. From her tone of voice, Minato could imagine her trying hard not to blush.

"Don't call me that!"

Minato continued onwards to his room, the voices behind him became inaudible as he got closer to the end of the hallway. Right after the door to his room closed behind him, his cell phone began to ring. With a heavy sigh, he picked up the phone from where he had left it on his desk. A part of him felt like pretending to have fallen asleep before the call had came but he reluctantly answered the phone.

"Hey Minato! It's me, Kaz. Are you busy at the moment?" the athlete sounded excited.

"No, what's up?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to hang out on Sunday," it was the first time he would see Kaz outside of practice. As Minato pondered over how to answer, a new part of himself shifted inside of him. It was a part of himself that didn't seem to have existed until recently.

"Yeah, sure," Minato answered.

"Okay, I'll meet you at Iwatodai Station. Don't be late," and with that, Kaz hung up the phone.

Too exhausted to deal with any more interruptions, Minato set his phone on silent. He crawled in to bed and was fast asleep.

It was the next day when he figured out the strange sensations within himself. His personae, they reacted to people in accordance to their arcana.

Pixie, a persona of The Lovers arcana, had helped him cheer up Yukari. Likewise, Nekomata had done the same during his short conversation with Junpei. Meanwhile, Orpheus of The Fool arcana gave him tolerance and the ability to quickly adapt to the diverse personalities SEES possessed. And lastly, Ara Mitama had convinced him to hang out with Kaz on the Sunday coming up.

Tartarus obviously had an immense amount of floors and they had only barely begun their climb up to the top. Any help he could get, Minato would welcome with open arms. Igor had also mentioned that his relationship with people would strengthen his powers after all. His personae's guidance would be a great help in creating and strengthening these relationships.


	2. Chapter 2

I find Mitsuru and Akihiko to be very difficult to write for, especially when it comes to dialogue. On the other hand, the juniors just flow like clean water when I write for them.

Disclaimer: I don't own Persona 3 FES.

Thanks to my friend, Takako, for her beta work.

One Year

Chapter 2

The Empress's Reign

"What's that up there? Are the girls planning to put together a gym up there?" Junpei pointed up at the third floor, better known as the girls' floor. Minato followed the direction with his eyes before they fell on the punching bag on the floor above.

"Maybe," he answered with a shrug. He obviously didn't think too much of it.

"What's with that? We should get one too! Besides, I can't see Yuka-tan or Mitsuru-senpai using a gym anyways," Junpei whined. He took another look at the expensive-looking piece of equipment. "Let's check it out!" he decided.

"Hang on. If Mitsuru-sempai finds out, we'll get in trouble," Minato grabbed on to Junpei's arm in a half-hearted attempt to stop him.

"Then she'll never find out...will she? Come'on, come'on, where's your adventurous spirit? This is a perfect excuse to go to the girls' floor," Junpei said in his most convincing tone. Without waiting for Minato to answer, he pulled him up the stairs with him. Minato went along without resistance or further protest.

The punching bag hanged just next to the railing, it seemed worn from being overly used. A small set of weights rested beside the punching bag. Nothing else seemed to have changed in the sitting area; the chairs, tables, and vending machines were all in the same place as before.

"Wow, this is a nice set of equipment," Junpei exclaimed, he was like a kid that had just discovered a new toy. He gave the punching bag an experimental nudge with his fist. "Alright, step back. Watch as I give this thing a beating from a real man!"

As Junpei wound up for the punch, his companion gave him a wide berth. Junpei threw a fierce punch, leaning forward in to it. The blow connected solidly and the punching bag rocked backwards violently. In a split second, it swung forward and smashed its agitator in the face. Junpei yelped as he was knocked on to his back, his hands over his face.

In a second, Minato was kneeling beside him. "Are you hurt?"

"Only my pride...," Junpei's voice was muffled through his hands. Minato began to feel a smirk appearing on his face, it was all he could do to keep from full blown laughter. Junpei groaned from his spot on the floor.

A door opened down the hall and the two of them froze. "What's going on out there?!" an irritated voice shouted, causing both the boys to freeze in momentary panic. They sighed in relief after realizing that it wasn't Mitsuru.

Yukari appeared from the end of the hallway in her usual school uniform complete with her pink sweater. Her expression changed from surprised to irritated. "What are you two doing?"

"Exercising," Minato answered calmly as if nothing was wrong.

"Yeah! At this rate, none of the shadows will be even able to keep up with us," Junpei was quick to agree, though his face was still a bit red from its sudden encounter with the punching bag.

"There's a reason Mitsuru-senpai moved these up here, you know," Yukari didn't hide her irritation at all.

"She's going to put together a gym in the dorm, right?" Junpei asked.

"Of course not! She moved this stuff up here because Akihiko-senpai was still trying to sneak in some training in his room even though he's still recovering. You shouldn't mess with it or both of them could get really mad," Yukari explained.

"She can do that?" Junpei was obviously surprised.

"Well, obviously. Anyways, it has nothing to do with us so we should just leave it alone. You two aren't supposed to be up here anyways!" Yukari said.

"It'll be fine. They'll be impressed by how serious we are about fighting the shadows," Junpei reasoned.

"I don't know…, I hear Mitsuru-senpai can be quite scary. The last person she caught doing something wrong got executed or something," Yukari sounded doubtful of such a rumor though.

"Executed? You mean like get their head chopped off? You serious?" Junpei gasped in disbelief.

"I don't know but I hear she's pretty well-known for her executions. I've never seen it happen before though," she answered.

"I promised someone that I would meet a friend somewhere tonight, so I gotta go. I'll see you two later," Minato interrupted the two of them suddenly. He started down the stairs towards the bottom floor.

"Wait, you can't just abandon me here. Don't tell me you're actually scared!" Junpei shouted after him. He was ignored for the most part.

The front door burst open just as Minato reached the first floor. "This waiting around is driving me crazy. I can't fight shadows or even train," Akihiko was saying as he was walking in. He managed to keep himself from raising his voice despite how frustrated he was.

"Until you fully recover, I can't allow that. Doctor's orders," Mitsuru kept paced right behind him.

"At least let me have my training equipment back, my room looks kind of empty without them." Akihiko almost sounded like he was whining.

"Alright but only if you promise not to train until you fully recover," Mitsuru was clearly in charge here.

"Tch! Fine, I promise," he gave in and started to walk off towards his room.

"Akihiko, wait. I don't take any pleasure out of stopping you. I know how much your training means to you," Mitsuru's voice softened unexpectedly but the boxer didn't seemed surprised at all.

Akihiko sighed warily. "I know. I'm sorry, I'm just frustrated. I didn't mean to take it out on you," he admitted before he continued towards his room.

He was surprised to see Minato standing in front of the stairs. "I suppose you heard everything, huh?" he asked. If he was embarrassed, he hid it well.

"I have a couple of magazines and books you can borrow to pass the time," Minato offered.

"I'll pass but thanks for the offer," and with that, he continued up the stairs.

Mitsuru was seated in her chair and reading yet another heavy book as Minato went towards the front door. She looked up when he neared. "Are you going out?" she asked.

"Yes, I promised to meet with someone tonight," Minato answered.

"I will see you later then. Remember to be back before curfew," she said before returning to her book.

It was several hours later when Minato returned. It was past curfew by several minutes now. He tiptoed inside to see that all the lights were shut off, everyone must have went to sleep already. As he climbed up the stairs, he notice a small bit of light piercing the darkness from somewhere above. Knowing that it would bother him unless he checked it out, he ended up on the fourth floor. The doors to the command room were wide open, pouring out light from within.

Sitting in front of the control panel was Mitsuru, with her head resting sideways on the controls directly in front of her. A light sheen of sweat plastered a small amount of hair to her face. Whatever she was dreaming about, it must have been something good because she was smiling slightly. She gave a slight moan and shifted in her sleep.

Mitsuru had always been strong and in-charge. Never before would Minato describe her as cute or maybe even vulnerable until this very moment. She was beautiful and intelligent, stunningly so in fact. Cute was just not in the equation until now, he felt like was invading on something extremely private by just finding her like this.

"Mitsuru-senpai!" he called. She stirred but didn't wake. She mumbled incoherently in her sleep, Minato could barely catch the word "parfait" before she smiled contently. Cute. "Mitsuru-senpai, you'll catch a cold if you sleep here," Minato gently laid a hand on her shoulder and shook her. It occurred to him how odd it was to tell such a responsible person such a thing.

Mitsuru blinked slowly and then jerked her head up, a brief look of confusion in her eyes as she took in her surroundings. Finally, she focused on the person standing beside her. "Arisato, you're late," she said rather sternly. Her tone demanded a reason and was surprisingly strong for someone who had just woken up.

"Sorry, Senpai. I never meant to stay out this late. Things just didn't go as planned," he explained. He suddenly wished that he had a persona that matched Mitsuru's arcana, it would help a lot in situations like these. Orpheus's guidance was more useful in dealing with all of SEES as a whole.

"I'll have to punish you, to make sure you don't do it again of course," Minato resisted the urge to flinch from her tone of voice.

"I understand," he managed to get out.

"You'll be sweeping the front of the dorm in the morning for a week. I suggest you get plenty of rest so can get it done before school starts," she continued.

"Yes, Senpai. I'm sorry you had to stay up and wait for me," Minato apologized sincerely.

"What happens in this dorm and its inhabitants fall under my responsibility. I only did what I had to do," Mitsuru's response sounded almost mechanical.

"Thank you for always taking care of us. I'll get ready for bed now," he started towards the door.

"Good night, Arisato."

"Good night, Senpai," he replied just as he went through the door. They shut with a loud echoing bang and Mitsuru startled at the sudden loud noise. She sighed before leaning back in to her chair. "Parfait...huh?" Minato's voice drifted in from outside.

Mitsuru gasped, her cheeks lighting up with a slight shade of pink. "Did I speak out loud in my sleep? How embarrassing...," she mumbled. Making a quick decision to confront him, she threw open the door and descended down a flight of stairs. He was already gone.

Mitsuru was left wondering how much he heard. Well, she could always ask him while he was up early doing the sweeping. If he watched her sleep, listened to her sleep-talk, or did anything weird; he would be executed.

"Ease up, will you? You're not supposed to hit it as hard as you can," Akihiko stood a short distance from Junpei. The two of them were on the third floor of the dorms, it was the next day after school and Junpei had convinced Akihiko to let him try his training equipment. The senior only accepted under the condition that he only do so under his supervision.

"Really? You're not?" Junpei asked. When Akihiko responded with a nod, he said, "Then what are you supposed to do with this?"

"I think it's better if I showed you," as Akihiko got in to position, Junpei moved out of the way. He began with a light jab with his right fist followed closely with another strike. Each hit was continued with another until the boxer fell in to a comfortable rhythm.

"Akihiko, what is the meaning of this!?" a clearly feminine voice demanded.

Akihiko froze in mid-punch. Junpei could easily see the distressed expression on his face and then his attempt to calm himself down all in a matter of seconds. Slowly, the senior turned to face the wrath of the heir to the Kirijo Group.

"Mitsuru! I can explain," he started to say.

"Please do," she said, her tone indicated that wouldn't put up with any nonsense. Her arms were crossed and she looked at him with an unnervingly neutral expression. He felt like a bug under a microscope.

"I was showing Junpei how to use the punching bag, otherwise he would have hurt himself," Akihiko said.

When Mitsuru turned to look at Junpei, he momentarily stiffened. Although her gaze wasn't hostile, he felt as if he could be frozen solid from it. "Is this true, Iori?" she asked.

"Y-yeah, I wanted to get some extra training in for the next time we go to Tartarus," Junpei tried his best to sound natural.

"I see. Make sure you don't overdo it," Mitsuru said.

"Okay."

"And Akihiko, don't try to train again in your condition," she gave him a stern look.

"I won't, I promised you didn't I?" the boxer sounded confident in keeping his promise.

"Good. I have something I have to attend to, I'll be back if Arisato decides to go to Tartarus tonight," Mitsuru said before heading back down the stairs.

"Whew! I haven't been that scared since my mom caught me sneaking snacks before dinner as a kid!" Junpei sighed in relief.

"Mitsuru isn't someone you should mess with," Akihiko warned.

"It sounds like you're afraid of her yourself, Akihiko-san." he half-teased.

"W-what are you talking about? It's not like that. She's just always been looking out for everyone. I just don't want her to worry, that's all," Akihiko said.


End file.
